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Archive for May, 2009

Main news of the week was of course the collection of short stories I released as Pure Escapism: Volume One. I can’t say as how it has taken off like a house of fire, but it is early days and there hasn’t been much in the way of advertising its existence yet.

On the positive side I have had a couple of nice things said about it, which was very encouraging.

Work for the second volume is well underway – perhaps not as quickly as I had hoped, but certainly on schedule for a release in June.

As a writer, one of the things I really want to accomplish is to be able to give characters stirring, inspiring speeches – the kind tvtropes refers to as the Rousing Speech. The kind that can turn the tide of a battle or just make you sit back and go ‘wow’.

There is a bit of a one that makes an appearance in The Bronze Man, but as I’m still learning the craft it isn’t up to level of some of the ones that inspire me. In time perhaps.

One of the best ones for me is the Rooftop Scene in Bladerunner, given by Roy Batty. It is made even more memorial as the lines came from the actor, Rutger Hauer, who felt the lines in the script were lacking. Not your typical rousing speech, but one that really works.

Shakespeare was of course a master of the written word, and he can not go without a mention. There are many to choose from, including the stirring Band of Brothers speech from Henry V.

Elizabeth I in reality gave one such speech at Tilbury in 1588, before the defeat of the Spanish Armada. It may seem a little dated to us, but certainly fits the bill.

And then there is Tolkien. Lord of the Rings seems packed with them. From Sam, to Aragorn, to Gandalf, to Theoden.

Sam’s speech at the end of the Two Towers.

Aragorn’s speech at the Black Gate.

Theoden’s Speech at Helm’s Deep

Theoden’s speech at Pelennor Fields – in the book this is actually Eomer’s speech, but it was given to Theoden in the movie.

One of the things I do when I’m not writing is play World of Warcraft. Not as much as I used to, but still enough.

I am certain the game is making me get OCD, what with all the mounts, and achievements and vanity pets and tabards I have to get…

I am Horde – always have been, always will. My main is a Tauren Druid, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given how often Minotaurs crop up in my writing – though that predates playing WOW by many years.

I have been a Feral Druid since the start, which is a kind of druid that shapeshifts into a bear or a big cat to fight. The problem is that since game release the models have never changed – every druid, no matter their level or equipment, looks the same.

Finally, after four years of waiting, that is about to change. New skins are coming and the previews of the Tauren Bear Form have been released, with cat form to come later.

My Tauren is white skinned (and you may have run into a couple of those in Pure Escapism…) and, according to what we know so far, I should end up with the new white skinned polar bear form, and should also end up as a white lion. All very exciting.

# In the future, criminals are punished much more harshly than they are today.
1. In the future, the punishment always fits the crime.
2. The author is apparently unaware of the American constitutional amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment, and so postulates that in the future, American punishment will be extra-cruel in some unusual way.

News of the week is that I’ve finally finished the last of the four short stories I have been editing, at least well enough for the purposes I want it for. Hopefully sometime during the day the four of them will be available on the site, in one form or another.

Still no closer to working out the conundrum from the previous post – still requires more thinking I guess.